Group Adjourns Without Acting on Antarctic Reserve: A proposal to protect a vital ocean ecosystem in the Ross Se...

PARIS — Frustrating advocates, an international commission charged with overseeing the Southern Ocean took no action Thursday on a proposal championed by the United States and New Zealand to create the world’s largest marine reserve in the seas around Antarctica. The two nations had proposed the creation of a 872,000-square-mile reserve in the Ross Sea and East Antarctic; conservationists wanted more, some 1.9 million square miles of protected area. Crucially, despite months of talks between Washington and New Zealand’s government in Wellington, the two countries went into the meeting in Hobart, Australia, with slightly different plans and had to work out a joint proposal early this week. The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, whose members include the European Union and 24 member states, operates on a consensus principle, and the issue n...